Archive | January 2015

Here’s something totally fun! How would you like to be one of five lucky winners to win a signed hard copy of Book #2 in the Kelsey Porter series? I’m launching THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB on February 28th and doing my first Instagram/Twitter contest to kick it off. All you have to do is upload a snapshot of yourself holding a copy of THE HUNT FOR XANADU, or of you with the cover showing on your Ipad or Phone and UPLOAD it to Instagram and/or Twitter with the Hashtag #xanaduquest Don’t forget the hashtag #xanaduquest as that’s how I’ll find you. I’ll keep a record of all the names and FIVE people will win a signed hard copy of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB in a random drawing. Contest ends on 2/21/15.

Don’t have an instagram or twitter acct? Then feel free to flood my Facebook author page at http://www.facebook.com/elysesalpeterauthor with the photo and hashtag and TAG me! Good Luck! (and yes, I’ll ship to any winner, wherever they live throughout the world)

Want your photo up on my website at http://www.elysesalpeter.com? Check out my “FAN SHOUT OUT” of folks who have already given me their approval to put their photos up. Let me know if it’s cool for you and you, too, can be on my webpage.

Don’t have a hard copy or ebook yet of THE HUNT FOR XANADU? Come on over and grab one here on amazon at:

Twenty-two year old Kelsey Porter has dedicated her life to avenging the death of her parents, murdered in their quest to find the mystical land of Xanadu. Before she can locate the murderers, she has to discover their motives for the brutal crime and finds herself at the epicenter of a Buddhist mystery as old as time. With the help of her companion, Detective Desmond Gisborne, she hunts the killers across the globe and discovers a darkness in her spiritual past that tests the very limits of her soul. Soon she realizes that it is not she who is doing the hunting, but the one being hunted. Kelsey must find a way to survive, while ancient demons attempt to destroy her.

Come join the fun, I’d love to see you and feel free to follow me here:

Soooo, want to hear what THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB is about? Where XANADU took you to Tibet, QUEST is taking you to…. EGYPT!

On the heels of THE HUNT FOR XANADU, Kelsey returns from Tibet with Desmond to begin a new life in New York City. But peace is not to come to her. One night, a stranger appears at her door with a note from a man from her past, begging for her aid. It involves her parents and Kelsey leaves for Egypt to learn the truth. But the truth is more than she bargained for. What secrets did her parents hide? Why is she now plagued with odd aches and pains and why is she having nightmares again? Kelsey must find answers and the only way to get them is to confront her demons and solve the ultimate mystery: The Quest of the Empty Tomb.

Ok, let’s talk social media and how many platforms should we be on? I have read so much about this and the consensus is you can’t be effective on every single one if you are on too many at once. (unless you have no life, never sleep and work them 24/7, which is unrealistic) I do Twitter, FB (communities and groups), Goodreads and Google+ (communities and groups), Pinterest regularly (and my blog) and built up, through hard work and sweat, excellent followings. I’m even on Linkedin but I do this strictly for work and my day job. But being active on all of these outlets is very time-consuming and frankly, I’m seeing some sales, but not as much as I’d expect with the amount of followers I have on some of these platforms (I mean, I have over 150K on google+ so what’s the point?). Now, there are some authors that say I should also be on Tumblr and Tsu and others as well. I guess at the end of the day I just want to know “Where Are My Readers?”

The other day I chatted with a woman who does promotions for authors. We were discussing her services, I explained what I do and she took a peek at my activity and she said “you actually do more than I do for my own clients.” Okay, then what does that mean? I’m active on so many social media sites, and I get tons of conversations, but how do I translate that to consistent sales? I honestly don’t know.

She suggested I start looking at bloggers. I said “but “I’ve been on a ton of blogs.” She said, “no, get on the RIGHT blogs. The fandoms, the biggies.” So, now I’m thinking about how to find book bloggers, and will start spending some of my social media efforts on finding these people.

Where’s the easiest place for me to find book bloggers? Turns out on Instagram. I’ve done some small little things are Instagram, but true to form, now I want to conquer it. So, I updated my profile, started following book bloggers and started to learn how this works. The ins and outs, the hashtags, the little nuances that Instagram offers that are different than FB, Twitter, and all the other sites. The first thing I can tell you is that younger people are on there. The teens and twenty year olds. People in their 30’s, definitely 40’s and 50’s, are on Facebook. I hardly see the kids on there unless they’re following adults who only put information on FB and that’s the only way they can reach them.

So, how many social media sites can I possibly be on? Apparently a lot. So how about following me on them? I love to interact with people and I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me on any of them here:

As for tumblr (sorry, ain’t happening yet – I can’t even figure out how to get off the first page), tsu (sort of like FB but I’m too invested in FB to worry about this yet), Stumble Upon (I’ve got an account and never used it) Reddit (not quite sure what this is), flickr (completely not sure what this is), myspace (is that even still around?), youtube (yeah, I’ve put some book trailers up there) and the others? I think I’m maxed out for now, thank you very much.

Of course, if there is something new and BIG, something that will help me reach readers better – please let me know. I do love to hear about the newest stuff out there.

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but when I started writing and publishing my novels, I kept expecting people to “discover what a fake” I was. I mean, I couldn’t wrap my head around calling myself a writer, even though I had a book out.

Then, I published a second one and most people still thought it was a cute little hobby. A cute little hobby I sweated and slaved over, got edited, beta’d, proofed, worked on covers, formatting, advertised, etc. Then, came numbers three and four and people thought, “wow, how adorable, she’s really trying to do this.”

I wondered when the day would come when someone said, “Hey, what do you do?” and I’d say “Oh, I’m a writer.” (without being embarrassed) Is it because I still don’t bring in enough money to actually write full time? Or something else? All I know is that publishing is vastly different than it was twenty years ago. I swear if I had done this back then, I may have been more successful. Well, maybe. For me, now, I’ve accepted that it’s going to be a slow and steady process. My goal has always been to get the books out and THEN to get the series out for each one. I was told I actually did it backwards, that I should have concentrated on one series at a time, but that wasn’t how life worked out. I had single books written, so I put them in market, and as the muse hit me, I wrote the sequels.

And that’s where I am today with the Kelsey Porter Series. I wrote THE HUNT FOR XANADU, which is book #1 in the series and next month I’m publishing THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB, book #2 in the series. I have high hopes for this series and my desire is that it continues for many books to come. So, to wrap up this entire post, I guess after this novel finally launches, and I officially have seven books in market, I can officially answer the question, “What do you do?” with “I’m a writer.” (hey, I didn’t even cringe too much writing that!)

To everyone who had the chance to read THE HUNT FOR XANADU, Book #1 in the Kelsey Porter Series, Book #2 is finished. It’s getting some final editing and proofing, cover is being created, and then it will be out to the world.

This series is near and dear to my heart. I wanted to write something that featured a strong female heroine, but be sexy and smart and action-packed. I wanted the characters to be well-rounded and have a history to them that was deep. I actually have written a 26 page character file with information about everyone in these books. Kelsey Porter’s sheets are actually six pages long and still growing as I develop her character further.

If you’re interested in picking up Book #1, THE HUNT FOR XANADU, feel free to click here:

So, without further ado… I give you the beginning of Chapter 1 of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB…

Chapter 1

The Pier

“Dammit, they were supposed to be here two days ago. Gisborne, I’m telling you, the intel was wrong.”

It was two a.m. and the detectives were back at the docks for the fifth night in a row. A rash of illegal and classified weaponry making their way to the United States from the Middle East had been reported and tracked to this location. They’d been told another one was due to have arrived two days prior, but it still hadn’t shown.

Detective Sean Flanagan swiped at the sweat dripping from his brow. It was hot on this breezeless August night and his partner knew he wasn’t happy. “We’ve been had. It had to have come in somewhere else.”

Desmond stood on the edge of the platform and examined the dock, searching for anything he might have missed. The abandoned warehouses were silent and empty and the pier was quiet. Light waves from the Hudson River lapped gently against the broken and decayed planks. An occasional coo from a dove, or a flap of pigeon wings, were the only sounds to mar the silence and tranquility of the evening.

“We definitely missed something,” Desmond mused. “Sharif was sure it was coming in here. He tracked the shipment leaving the Middle East.”

“Sure, my ass,” Flanagan snorted. “Wheedling the info out of a bunch of drunken Syrians isn’t what I’d call ‘sure.’ Probably blitzed out of his mind on Barada Beer the entire time. Not so hard when you’re partying on the government’s dime.”

Desmond exhaled. “Let’s do a final check of the wharfs on Harper’s Row and then call it a night.”
The Detectives moved across the jetty and made their way downtown to the last set of piers.